Earles Court Tower Jubilee – On Columbus Day, October 14, 2013, a number of citizens from the Town of Narragansett got together at Earles Court Tower to take part in a Jubilee Celebration, which included the first donation towards the restoration of the Tower for $10,000. The event also featured the revealing of architectural drawings of what the restored tower would look like. The event was capped off with a “125” people formation for the Jubilee, which was captured in an aerial photograph taken by Don Bousquet (see the picture below). I was fortunate enough to have attended and video record the event, which can be seen below.

Earles Court Tower Restoration Donation Ceremony

As can be seen in the video, James Callahan of the Narragansett Town Council kicked things off by introducing Keith Lescarbeau, Chairman of the Narragansett District Historic Commission. Mr. Lescarbeau stressed that this is just the very beginning of a long process to get to the finish line. As he stated, once construction begins, the majority of the work to pull the project off will have already been completed. The majority of the work is on the front end, including some serious fundraising that will be required to see this project to the end. He discussed the question as to why take on a project like this during these hard economic times and talked about the dwindling number of historic structures that survive the wrecking ball, fire or mother nature over time and how preserving a select few of these is an important thing to do.

Mr. Lescarbeau, with the help of Sallie Latimer, then revealed the architectural drawing of what is proposed for the tower restoration. The stone base of the tower currently sits at 26’8″ high, while the proposed restored tower will stand an impressive 81′ high, which is as high as The Towers, another restored historical Narragansett landmark along Ocean Road. The finished project will also support a 22 foot carbon fiber griffen, just as it appeared all those years ago. What an impressive sight that will be!

The microphone was then passed along to Mr. James Briggs, who provided Sallie Latimer with a check of $10,000 to start out this project on the right foot. Ms. Latimer, who was responsible for organizing the event, was very much appreciative of Mr. Briggs and talked about his service as a veteran of World War II. With the help of the assistants of Don Bousquet, she then organized the entire crowd to assemble along Earles Court Road in front of the tower to form a human chain 125 to celebrate both the Tower and Narragansett’s 125th Jubilee anniversary. Don Bousquet and his son Nathan Bousquet then utilized there “magic” portable flying camera device to take aerial photographs of the assembled neighbors. It really was fun to be a part of and even more fun to have documented the event for you to now enjoy!

A big hat’s off to Richard and Sallie Latimer; Mr. James Briggs and family; James Callaghan , Town Council President; John Paul Mitchell Foundation; Don Bousquet and son; James Transue; Mark Hintsa; The Gibson Avenue Association; Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner; Patty Roosa; Michael Delucca; David Presbrey; Keith Lescarbeau; Shaws of Wakefield and Jerry’s Hardware. A big thanks as well to Narragansett Town Council, Narragansett Department of Public Works, Narragansett Community Development Department, Narragansett Parks and Recreation Department and the Narragansett Police Department, who also contributed to this event.